hi i'm paula moore the posture doctor here to answer the most asked
question I get asked in practice should I use ice or heat and it's a great question I
always give the same answer to begin with go with your gut instinct your body
knows best if you can't bear the thought of ice touching your skin then probably
don't if the thought of a hot water bottle or bath feels right go with that
to begin with I think our instincts tell us a lot now
for some of the rules let's talk about muscle tension so you've been carrying
your child on your shoulders through the weekend at the fairgrounds and your
shoulders are really tense and sore or you've been sitting too long at the
computer or you've been a couch potato all weekend so you've got muscle tension
that's when you want to reach for the hot water bottle I favor this to wheat
packs because moist heat penetrates really quickly think a little bit of
muscle tension squeezing around the blood vessels and constricting the blood
flow to the area hot water bottle allows dilation of the blood vessels an
increase of blood flow to the area bringing more nutrients and more oxygen
and washing away the waste products the lactic acid from overworking muscles
leaves you feeling much more comfortable quickly okay now let's talk about
inflammation the kind of inflammation you get when you've injured yourself
you've slipped off a curb may be strained and ankle knocked into a wall
you've got a bit of an egg on your forehead or you've had a sudden back
injury and it's very acutely painful this is when we're talking now about
acute pain and this is when we talk about using ice acute pain is pain that
lasts anywhere from day one up to day seven to ten and in this period you'll
have inflammation now inflammation is the body's natural response to healing
the area so we don't want to stop inflammation that's why I'm not a fan of
anti-inflammatories it's a drug it's a chemical stopping the body's natural
healing process without inflammation our tissues wouldn't heal so the ice is
used more to get you feeling a little more comfortable in that period so this
is great I love these gel packs wrapped in a little tea towel you can
just pop them down your pants and walk around with them for 20 minutes at a
time and they don't get unbearably cold and they're flexible so for the first
seven to ten days the acute pain that goes along with inflammation from an
injury is going to be managed with ice twenty minutes on one to two hours off
20 minutes on one to two hours off do it at least four times in a day over that
period you'll probably already be seeing your health professional alongside that
and they'll also tell you the same now after you get past the one-week mark
you're going to start to alternate ice heat ice heat there'll still be some
swelling but the swelling doesn't feel like a water balloon
so much now it feels a bit more like hard gel a bit like this pack actually
and now you can start increasing the blood flow to the area because remember
increasing the blood flow dilates the blood vessels brings more nutrients and
oxygen to the area important for healing but there's still some discomfort so you
can manage the inflammation with using ice the way I initially told you to do
20 minutes on an hour or two off back and forth back and forth again
throughout the day you can do that for about a week if you're getting into
weeks of discomfort weeks of pain over the four week mark up to about six weeks
plus you're into chronic pain and you do need some help so go and see your
chiropractor (or doctor) don't try to manage it with ice and heat alone it's not likely going
to be enough if you have any questions about that please email me at
posturevideos.com and I hope that was be helpful thanks very much for watching
bye